The Nü-hsiao Ching (The Classic on Filial Piety for Women) has been influential in the lives of many Chinese women in late dynastic China. This paper analyses it by beginning with an examination of the indeterminacy of its origins and a description of its presumed historical context. The woman's classic is then compared, in structure and content, with the Han treatise on filial piety, the Hsiao Ching (The Classic on Filial Piety). Finally, the paper considers the importance of class in the formulation of the specific obligations and responsibilities implicit within the objectives of self-cultivation.
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